KUALA LUMPU - Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is facing an opposition bid to seize power, said on Wednesday he might step down before a planned handover to his deputy in mid-2010.

Mr Abdullah also said he was handing over his finance portfolio to deputy premier Najib Razak with immediate effect.

'I will decide when I want to go... I will not be staying more than 2010,' Mr Abdullah told a press conference.

'If I should want to go earlier, that is flexible. That is the flexibility we have arranged,' he said of the transition plan forged with Najib after disastrous March elections that triggered calls for him to quit. -- AFP